London exhibitions opening during 2021

Welcome to the ianVisits guide to alternative exhibitions opening soon in London.

Displayed in date order by how soon they open.

£15 The Secret World of Plants
Opening Saturday, 1st May

Embrace the wonderfully weird world of plant biodiversity through newly commissioned interactive art installations using music, sound and colour.

Free How We Live Now: Reimagining Spaces with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

An installation exploring two important social questions: who are our buildings and shared spaces for and how do they affect us?

£14 Freud & Pandemic
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

This topical exhibition explores the similarities between Freud’s experience of the Spanish Flu and 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on mental health and the response by psychoanalysts.

Free Forest on Fire
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

The exhibition features a series of bronze-cast animal pelts and abstract, carved stone animal heads, supported by stone basins.

£16 Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

Sixty-five paintings that usually hang in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace and are widely acknowledged to be among the highlights of the Royal Collection have been brought together in a gallery exhibition for the first time.

£0 Wish You Were Here: 151 Years of the British Postcard
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

This exhibition celebrates and explores the iconic role the postcard has played in connecting people for more than a century and a half.

£16.50 Unearthed: Photography's Roots
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

The first exhibition to trace the history of photography as told through depictions of nature, revealing how the subject led to key advancements in the medium, from its very beginnings in 1840 to present day.

£7.70 Julian Opie
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

Pitzhanger presents a new body of work by renowned British artist Julian Opie, including site specific pieces, focusing on architecture, people and nature.

£13 Lynette Yiadom-Boakye - Fly In League With The Night
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

The first major survey of one of the most important painters working today

Free Noël Coward: Art & Style
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

The visual impact of Noël Coward’s life and work is celebrated in this major exhibition.

£24.50 The Art of Banksy
Opening Sunday, 2nd May

A large - unauthorised - exhibiton of original Banksy artworks.

Free Beuys’ Acorns
Opening Tuesday, 4th May

In response to the climate emergency, artists Ackroyd & Harvey have installed Beuys’ Acorns, a group of 100 oak trees, on Tate Modern’s South Terrace

£13 Zanele Muholi
Opening Monday, 17th May

Tate Modern presents the first major UK survey of visual activist Zanele Muholi.

Free RGBFAQ - Alan Warburton
Opening Monday, 17th May

RGBFAQ comprises a research-led experiential exhibition in which the audience navigates a "black-box" set populated by gigantic geometric sculptures.

£12 Constance Spry and the Fashion for Flowers
Opening Monday, 17th May

An exhibition about the 20th century’s most influential floral decorator, Constance Spry.

£22 Turner's Modern World
Opening Monday, 17th May

This landmark exhibition brings together major works by Turner from Tate and other collections, including The Fighting Temeraire 1839 and Rail, Steam and Speed 1844.

£12 Shara Hughes
Opening Monday, 17th May

The exhibition brings together a group of new site specific paintings and works on paper by the New York-based artist

Free Death Marches: Evidence and Memory
Opening Monday, 17th May

This exhibition uncovers how forensic and other evidence about the death marches has been gathered since the end of the Holocaust.

£18 Jean Dubuffet - Brutal Beauty
Opening Monday, 17th May

An exhibition celebrating French artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), one of the most singular and provocative voices in postwar modern art.

Free Remembering the War: Victory & Remembrance in Harrow
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

Included in the exhibition are memories from those who remember the Second World War in Harrow.

£12 Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

Step up and discover the footwear phenomenon that has challenged performance design, inspired subcultures and shaken the world of fashion.

£5 Within The Reach Of All: The Century Guild
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

The first exhibition in 20 years to explore the pioneering aesthetics and lasting legacy of this influential association of artists, designers and craftspeople.

£17 Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

In this landmark exhibition, Tracey Emin selects masterpieces by Edvard Munch to show alongside her most recent paintings.

Free Remember the Future
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

This group exhibition and artist led research project unearths and interrogates our connection with our habitats and ecosystems, both global and local.

Free Margaret Calvert: Woman at Work
Opening Tuesday, 18th May

This display marks the launch of Network Rail’s new customised typeface, Rail Alphabet 2, designed by her in close collaboration with Henrik Kubel.

£25.30 Gold and Glory: Henry VIII and the French King
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

A special exhibition of dazzling Tudor treasures celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Field of Cloth of Gold

Free Our Future Planet
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

An exhibition that offers a first look at the technologies being developed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.

Free The Romance of Ruins
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

This exhibition showcases a series of powerful and poetic watercolours made on an expedition to discover the ruins of ancient Ionia (modern Turkey) in 1764.

£12 Matthew Barney: Redoubt
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

See the artist’s first solo museum presentation in the UK in over a decade, featuring the UK premiere of a ‘breathtakingly beautiful’ new feature-length film.

Free Asante Goldweights
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

A display of Asante treasures from Ghana, shedding light on 19th-century collecting and the British Empire.

£9.50 Eileen Agar: Angel of Anarchy
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

This definitive retrospective charts her ground-breaking career from the 1920s to the 1990s.

£12 Bags: Inside Out
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

From designer handbags to despatch boxes, vanity cases to military rucksacks, this exhibition explores our longstanding fascination with the bag.

£25 Wartime London: Art of the Blitz
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

This curated selection of artworks, on display for a limited time only, shines a new light on the experiences of ordinary people forced into new patterns of living by Nazi air raids.

£12 Igshaan Adams: Kicking Dust
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

The South African artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK takes inspiration from indigenous dance.

Free Desde el Salón (From the Living Room)
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

Calero’s display invites us to think about the act of collecting, about what we choose to surround ourselves with in our homes and the importance and presence of the natural world.

Free A Glittering City: Ayo Akingbade with Duchamp & Sons
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

Speaking to architects, public sector workers and young people, artist and filmmaker Ayo Akingbade creates moving image work that forges conversations on urbanism, gentrification, power and resilience.

Free Phantoms of Surrealism
Opening Wednesday, 19th May

This exhibition examines the pivotal role of women as both artists and as behind-the-scenes organisers within the Surrealist movement in Britain in the 1930s.

Free Tal Regev
Opening Thursday, 20th May

Primarily depicting the human figure, Regev creates luminous and ethereal spaces on the surface of her canvases.

Free Conversations with God - Jan Matejko’s Copernicus
Opening Friday, 21st May

This is a rare opportunity to see one of Poland’s most loved works of art.

£15 Michael Armitage - Paradise Edict
Opening Saturday, 22nd May

An exciting new force in painting, Michael Armitage draws from Titian, Goya, Manet and Gauguin to explore East African culture and folklore.

Free John Hassall: Illustrator and Poster Artist
Opening Saturday, 22nd May

This exhibition seeks to explore key aspects of John Hassall’s work, and to celebrate the life of this extraordinary artist a century on from his heyday.

£8.80 Turner’s English Coasts
Opening Saturday, 22nd May

This exhibition focuses on the artist’s engagement with English marine and coastal subjects at a pivotal time in his career when he was living at Sandycombe Lodge.

£20 Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser
Opening Saturday, 22nd May

Exploring its origins, adaptations and reinventions over 157 years, this immersive and theatrical show charts the evolution of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from manuscript to a global phenomenon beloved by all ages.

£21 David Hockney: The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020
Opening Sunday, 23rd May

Made in the spring of 2020, during a period of intense activity at his home in Normandy, this exhibition charts the unfolding of spring, from beginning to end, and is a joyous celebration of the seasons.

£7.70 Soane Restored
Opening Thursday, 27th May

This exhibition will reveal the fascinating story of how Pitzhanger, a rare and extraordinary example of Sir John Soane’s work, was restored to its original vision.

£10 Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits
Opening Friday, 28th May

Come face-to-face with the kings and queens who have shaped British history for over 500 years

£15 Half term family fun at the Transport Museum's Acton Depot
Opening Saturday, 29th May

Visit the Transport Museum's Acton Depot this May half term for seven days of exploration and fun for all the family.

£18 Epic Iran
Opening Saturday, 29th May

Epic Iran explores 5,000 years of Iranian art, design and culture, bringing together over 300 objects from ancient, Islamic and contemporary Iran.

£12.50 Gaia Returns to the Painted Hall
Opening Sunday, 30th May

This monumental sculpture by Luke Jerram amazes audiences as it rotates slowly while suspended in mid-air, an exact scale replica of Earth made using NASA imagery.

£16 London Design Biennale
Opening Tuesday, 1st Jun

Global gathering of designers with installations and presentations across Somerset House.

£0 Van Gough Alive
Opening Friday, 4th Jun

This summer, Kensington Gardens will host Van Gogh Alive, an immersive “experience” based around the life and work of the Dutch artist.

£9 JR: Chronicles
Opening Friday, 4th Jun

The largest solo museum exhibition to date in London of the internationally recognised French artist JR, featuring some of his most iconic projects from the past fifteen years.

£16 Claudia Andujar - The Yanomami Struggle
Opening Thursday, 17th Jun

An exhibition devoted to the life and work of Claudia Andujar and her collaboration with the Yanomami, one of Brazil’s largest indigenous peoples.

£18 Charlotte Perriand: The Modern Life
Opening Saturday, 19th Jun

Meet one of the giants of 20th century design, a free spirit who championed good design for all and was often overshadowed by her famous male collaborators. 

£18 Paula Rego
Opening Wednesday, 7th Jul

The largest and most comprehensive retrospective of Paula Rego’s work to date.

£16 Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Opening Thursday, 15th Jul

Bringing together over 200 objects from collections across Europe and America, this exhibition shows how Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) blazed a new path for the development of abstraction.

£20 Marina Abramović - After Life
Opening Saturday, 25th Sep

Here, the artist presents the first ever UK exhibition spanning her life’s work – including live re-performances of iconic works, as well as brand new work for these galleries.